Avidly Reads Passages"What is the value of Black life in America?" In Avidly Reads Passages, Michelle D. Commander plies four freighted modes of travelthe slave ship, train, automobile, and busto map the mobility of her ancestors over the past five centuries. In the process, she refreshes the conventional American travel narrative by telling an urgent story about how history shapes what moves us, as well as what prevents so many Black Americans from moving or being moved.